FLOW OF EMULSIONS IN POROUS MEDIA: EXPERIMENTS AND CAPILLARY NETWORK MODEL / ESCOAMENTO DE EMULSÕES EM MEIOS POROSOS: EXPERIMENTOS E MODELO DE REDE DE CAPILARES

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

Objective: Transport of emulsions in porous media is relevant to several subsurface applications. Many enhanced oil recovery processes involve emulsion formation and their flow in some form. Modeling the flow of emulsion in porous media is extremely challenging. The available descriptions based on effective viscosity are not valid when the drop size is of the same order of magnitude as the pore-throat size. In this case, drop straining and capturing may partially block the pore passage and an accurate model should be able to describe this local changes on mobility. The model developed in this work is based on the flow rate-pressure drop relationship of emulsion flow through constricted capillaries. A capillary network model is constructed in order to obtain macroscopic parameters from upscaling of the microscopic behavior. The results show how the permeability changes with Darcy velocity and emulsion properties. At low flow rates, the large drops partially block the smallest pores, leading to a low permeability. At high flow rates, the pressure gradient in each capillary is strong enough to force the drops to flow through the constrictions. Consequently, the permeability rises with capillary number. A program, written in Fortram language, based on network model is developed in this work to simulate the single phase and two phase flow of emulsion through a porous medium. In the single phase model, the results show good agreement with experimental measurements on samples of sandstone. In the two phase model, the comparison of results between the injection of the continuous phase of emulsion and the injection of emulsions (with drops) on a network initially saturated with oil shows an increase in the oil recovery factor and a more uniform displacement front in the case of emulsion injection.

ASSUNTO(S)

emulsions emulsoes meios porosos porous media capillarity capilaridade

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